Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Statistical Probabilities

Getting away from their home facility
Helping out computing statistical probability
They interrupt a meeting, say hello to my dad
Saying listen, there it goes again
Buzzing like a Scalosian(1)
Why don't you fix it dear fellow before I go mad
Show infinite diversity in infinite combination
All cancels out like a path integration(2)
Bashir checks the analysis, can't find any faults
Dad says the job was well done
Forecast the future like Seldon(3)
Now they're spinning like a spaceship to the Blue Danube Waltz(4)
Further analysis borders on treasonous
Preventing loss of life, that's what the reason is
But Bashir gets released, it doesn't go as they planned
Says we can change the course of history(5)
Everyday people like you and me
Even against the odds, it's worth making a stand.

From TOS's "Wink of an Eye", the Scalosians experienced time at a much slower rate than the Enterprise crew. They were heard only as a buzzing similar to insects until they accelerated Captain Kirk into their time frame.

Richard Feynman developed the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, where quantum amplitudes are computed by integrating over all possible paths. Paths far from that of minimal action typically cancel out and the system approaches the classical trajectory.

In Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, Hari Seldon developed the science of psychohistory for the probabilistic prediction of future events.

"An der schönen blauen Donau", a waltz by Johann Strauss II commonly known as "The Blue Danube" in English and appearing in this episode, was famously used to score the space station docking sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey

From Afrika Bambaataa's "Renegades of Funk", the third verse begins 'Now renegades are people with their own philosophy / They change the course of history /Everyday people like you and me'